Writings about finding inspiration in everyday life.
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21 August 2006

What to Expect - Fasts

How to Know What to Expect During a FastFasting is not necessarily easy. You'll need physical and psychological discipline to achieve results. A successful fast will give you clarity of mind, soundness of body, and a greater quality of life.

Steps:1. Expect to feel anxiety in the days prior to the fast. Your mind will try to talk you out of fasting with all sorts of excuses. Avoid the temptation to eat a big "last supper" before you fast. Instead, eat lightly on the days before the fast to help prepare your body.

2. Realize that fasting will teach you a lot about your relationship with food and meals. In the first days of your fast you will feel out of place at meal times. People around you will be eating, going to restaurants and having food-related fun. You may feel left out. Take note of these things and realize the huge role food plays in the daily routines of people.

3. Counter you feelings of being left out by becoming involved in your fast. There are lots of things to do: make teas, take baths, skin brush, stretch, meditate, do yoga, take internal baths. Realize that this is time you have set aside to clean and repair your body - take it seriously.

4. Expect to feel impatient and irritable in the first two or three days of your fast. This is your body adjusting from using the food in your digestive tract (which remains for about three days) to consuming stored fats. Just imagine how rarely your body has a chance to eliminate these stored fats with you dumping three meals a day down your throat.

5. Realize that by the third day your mind and body will be conspiring against the fast to get you to stop. You will smell food cooking five blocks away. Enjoy the smell, but do not eat.

6. Expect to stop feeling hungry after three days. By this time your digestive tract is empty and your body has adjusted. If you are fasting properly, you should not feel any physical hunger for many days to come.

7. Understand that you may experience aches in certain parts of your body. This usually means that elimination of fatty tissue is taking place in that area of your body, which is not harmful. Lower back pain can be a symptom of dehydration, so make sure to keep hydrated. Any extensive or severe pain should be examined immediately.

8. Anticipate headaches, stomachaches and discomfort as a result of salt, sugar and caffeine withdrawal. Avoid these discomforts by tapering off these addictions in the days prior to your fast.

9. Expect changes in your bowel functions. You will have to aid your bowels to keep moving.

10. Expect to lose weight, but also expect to put it back on after the fast.